Your Right to Know

Here are details on a handful of investigative reports — from 2013 and this year — among the hundreds never publicly released by the office of Ohio’s inspector general.

• Bureau of Workers’ Compensation: Kim Rogers, an employer service specialist in the Dayton office, used state resources to operate a personal business on state time. She solicited co-workers and BWC-covered employers to buy items from her company. She also sought another job while on state time. She resigned.

• Civil Rights Commission: Field supervisor Foday Kenneh used state resources and operated his photography business on state time, including assigning a subordinate to perform work for his business. He was fired.

• Department of Education: Melanie Brown claimed to inspect 15 public-school preschool centers but never visited them. She received nearly $3,800 in pay on days she claimed to be doing inspections. She also misused a state vehicle, driving one to Pennsylvania on a personal trip. She resigned.

• Department of Mental Health: With purchases made with a state credit card, Taffnie Lent, a supervisor at Appalachian Behavioral Health Care in Athens, redeemed hundreds of dollars in Staples “reward points” for personal purchases. State-purchased printer-ink cartridges valued at $589 were found in her garage. She received a “working” suspension and was placed on a “last-chance” agreement.

• Department of Mental Health: Five employees at regional centers were found to have used state computers on state time to access “pornography.” The employees were police officers Brian Bollinger, Scott Cooper and Scott Prater, custodian Charles Combs and psychiatric nurse Weldon Cartwright. Some said their computer passwords were used by others. The agency is completing its investigation.

• Department of Rehabilitation and Correction: While on the job at Pickaway Correctional Institution, grievance officer Mary Lawrence and corrections officer Terry Rue, assigned to perimeter patrol, talked on the telephone for 157 hours during a 13-month period. They were in a “personal relationship.” Both received “working” suspensions with no loss of pay.

• Department of Rehabilitation and Correction: College intern Christine Davis sent a confidential inmate report on an ex-convict to her father, Michael Moore, a village prosecutor preparing to prosecute the man. She also sent crime-scene photos to a parole officer who was reprimanded for not reporting Davis’ actions. Karin Ho, administrator of the Office of Victim Services, was found to have improperly supervised Davis. She resigned and went to work for the Department of Youth Services.

• Department of Taxation: Supervisor Phillip Smallwood falsified the number of yearly visitors to walk-in regional tax service centers from nearly 42,000 to 80,000, leading to employees citing the inflated number in testimony before lawmakers. Smallwood lost his job when the seven service centers later closed, eliminating about 100 positions.

Source: Ohio inspector general

Selected unpublicized reports from the inspector general’s office may be view by clicking on the links in the left side of the page. The reports will open as PDFs.